SportsNews

Dakar 2025, Stage 9: Al-Attiyah fastest as Al-Rajhi grabs overall lead

Published

8 months ago

January 14, 2025

Nasser Al-Attiyah bounced back from a difficult showing on Monday to claim victory on Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally, while a puncture for Toyota driver Henk Lategan promoted Yazeed Al-Rajhi to the overall lead.

Dacia’s Al-Attiyah and Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom initially duelled for victory in the 357km test between Riyadh and Haradh, with the two trading the lead in the first part of the day.

Qatar driver Al-Attiyah held the early advantage in his Dacia Sandrider before Ekstrom flexed his muscle to jump to the front 81km into the stage.

The five-time Dakar winner retook the lead at the following checkpoint and began to stretch his advantage in the second half of the day, pulling out a lead of over a minute with less than 100km to run.

As Ekstrom dropped further back, Al-Attiyah continued to chip away from his rivals, eventually reaching the finish line with a 2m47s margin over X-raid Mini’s Guillaume de Mevius, who moved up to second.

The Belgian stood third for much of the all-gravel stage on Tuesday, but leapfrogged Ekstrom at the 217km mark to secure his best finish of 2025 since his victory on Stage 6.

Meanwhile, Overdrive’s Al-Rajhi put in a solid performance in a customer Toyota to take third, demoting Ekstrom’s Ford to fourth place.

Al-Rajhi team-mate’s Rokas Backiuska rounded off the top five, ahead of the other Ford of debutant Mitch Guthrie Jr.

#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk
© Autosport.com

#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk

Photo by: A.S.O.

No factory Toyotas finished inside the top 10, as Guy Botterill crashed out at the 272km mark and Lategan suffered an early puncture that cost him seven minutes to fix.

The South African haemorrhaged more time later in the stage, eventually finishing 16 minutes back in 11th place – just a day after he had taken victory on Stage 8.

His troubles allowed Al-Rajhi to snatch the lead in the Ultimate class with just three stages remaining, the Saudi driver moving 7m09s clear at the top of the standings.

Ekstrom continues to hold third place on Ford’s maiden factory outing, with Al-Attiyah now less than a minute behind in the last-remaining Dacia.

Guthrie Jr sits half an hour adrift in fifth place, while Matthieu Serradori has strengthened his grip on sixth position despite a low-key outing on Tuesday.

Dakar 2025 – Results after Stage 9 (Top 10)

Pos	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota	33h43m58s
2	Henk Lategan	Toyota	7m09s
3	Mattias Ekstrom	Ford	24m50s
4	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia	25m21s
5	Mitch Guthrie Jr	Ford	56m28s
6	Matthieu Serradori	Century	1h06m52s
7	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Toyota	1h44m41s
8	Seth Quintero	Toyota	1h46m07s
9	Joao Ferreira	Mini	2h11m02s
10	Brian Baragwanath	Century	2h31m14s

SportsNews

EPL: Aina sidelined for three months with injury

Published

6 hours ago

September 12, 2025

Ekwutos Blog

Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina will be sidelined for three months with a hamstring injury, Ekwutosblog reports.

Aina sustained the injury on international duty with Nigeria this week.

The 27-year-old was replaced in the 10th minute of Nigeria’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against South Africa on Tuesday.

According to the Telegraph, the versatile full-back is not expected to return to action until the end of the year.

Aina’s long-term injury will be a big blow for new Forest manager Ange Postecoglou, who is hoping to make an instant impact at the club.

Forest will be away to Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday.

SportsNews

EPL: Rio Ferdinand names only team that will challenge Liverpool for title

Published

9 hours ago

September 12, 2025

Ekwutos Blog

Former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has said only Arsenal can challenge Liverpool in the Premier League title race this season.

The Reds are the only team with a perfect record after three games so far.

Before the current campaign kicked off, Ferdinand said only Liverpool and Manchester City would be in the running to emerge champions.

But he has now replaced City with Arsenal.

Arsenal began the season with wins over Manchester United and Leeds United before losing 1-0 to Liverpool before the international break.

Manchester City have however lost two of their three opening matches.

“I think the only team who will be anywhere near Liverpool this season is Arsenal,” Ferdinand told MailSport.

“They’ve got a great squad, real good depth with who they’ve bought.

“I don’t think we’ll see anyone else. Anyone you think might be a surprise, a Newcastle or a Chelsea, I think European football hinders them a little bit in that respect. Just the demands it puts on the squad.”